A Thousand Sugar Stars, Oh Put Them in a Jar (October Catch-All)

[ricebird]

Characters: Kotori Iida [Sweet Porridge Girl], Della Duck [Icarus], Master Crane [Crane (Tsuru no Ongaeshi)], Disciple [Jekyll and Hyde], and YOU!
Campaign: Break
Format: Starting with brackets, but will match
One Open, Two Closed
Summary: Kotori comes back from a brief trip home, makes lots of tasty food with people, and wakes up at an ungodly early hour to train. (Oh, also, Hyde happens.)


A. I Looked at the World Through Apple Eyes (Closed to Della Duck and Master Crane)

[Wild and unpredictable as restoring The Little Mermaid had been, Kotori is very, VERY glad the ending turned out happy, with not a speck of mermaid-derived seafoam in sight. Coming back to the Index and seeing the city dressed in autumn colors, though… is it already close to a year since the Storyteller first brought them here? Close to a year since she last saw home… She should fix that.

So after telling a few of her closer friends and asking them to watch her place and let any other Aspects who ask know so no one panics ROXAS, she asks the Storyteller to send her home, just for a little while. By Index time, she’s only gone a few days; in Japan, it’d only been a few weeks. It was… weird being back in a completely normal world after spending a year here. Going through school, cooking more with Inuzuka-sensei and Tsumugi-chan, her mom working hard again. Shinobu had even been visiting her during lunch break lately, even if it felt a bit awkward not telling her about cooking with the Inuzukas… or this place, for that matter. The remembered it vividly for a few days, but… then started writing it off as a dream. Huh. The whole business is weird, really, like the time differences, and her feelings for…

But she can think about all that later. The Storyteller brought her back in late at night it seems, and she’s already really tired. One good thing about all her schooling being left at home is that she can sleep in as late as she wants tomorrow. …… Which, if her memories of the Index had been a little fresher, she’d remember as having scheduled a certain meeting with a certain duck. This should be interesting.]


B. And Cut Myself a Slice of Sunshine Pie (Open)

[Between this new routine of cooking sessions with the Inuzukas, her pot’s new shapeshifting ability, the pub’s brand new kitchen, and actually having a recipe collection to work with, and creating the massive feast during the ball, Kotori’s not only started getting used to cooking with other people, she’s actually starting to crave it even more than she had been. So whether she asks you herself, or you ask to come over to practice a recipe (especially for a date coming up~), from late morning to a little bit into the evening, Kotori’s available to make just about anything.

Or maybe you smelled good food inside and decided to invite yourself into this strangely cauldron-shaped pub. (Especially if it involves daikon GOBO.) Those in this category might be confused to see that the space is clean and well-kept, if rustic, there doesn't seem to be much of a crowd. In fact, the only person here is a teenage girl, in the middle of cleaning the kitchen in the back, sweeping and polishing the floors and counters up front, or sitting down at the bar for a meal for one, depending on what time of day you catch her.

Still, yes, Kotori’s door is open, so come on in, cook, and eat!]


C. I Danced with the Peanut Butterflies (Closed to Disciple)

[Of course, even with how fun these cooking lessons are, a little quite time in between is always nice. (Not to mention kitchens don’t clean themselves…) So after doing some sweeping and mopping for the day, Kotori’s sitting at the bar counter with a nice, simple dinner with a steaming bowl of nyuumen and a cup of hot green tea. Perfect for a cool, peaceful autumn day like this… ……. Okay but maybe a miniature apple charlotte after this would be nice. After seconds, of course.]


D. Till Time Went and Told Me to Say Hello but Wave Goodbye (Wildcard)

[[Got something in find other than the prompts listed here? Feel free to hit me up on Plurk or Discord so we can plot!]]

Comments

2/2

[ricebird]

Meanwhile... these are safe to eat, right~? They're not going to explode or anything?

[She sounds more eager to dig in than worried about that last part, but HUNK TAUGHT HER WELL.]

[tempredmental]

Mmm...

[Keith stared at the basket in thought, almost missing her question about the now three basket-loads of baked goods on the table... and then he looked at Kotori for a moment in slight surprise.]

Oh, uh... I don't think so? Why would they?

[He honestly hadn't tried...]

[ricebird]

[Mmmmm stuffing... or bread pudding.]

Aha well... do you know Hunk at all? He's once of the newer Aspects, and one of his powers here is summoning honey pots with different effects. And um... some explode, but thankfully we were able to figure out how to pick what he made instead of it being random!

[tempredmental]

[Keith nodded. Yes, he knew Hunk... he definitely knew Hunk.]

Oh. That's uh... wow. That's pretty cool.

[Keith almost sounded amused by the idea.]

Hunk's actually a friend of mine from back home. He's a good guy.

[He smiled a little, always happy to talk about his team. They were his family.]

[ricebird]

Oh! You two are from the same world, that's nice! And... yeah, I agree. Hunk-san is a very good guy.

[Yeah, she TRIES to keep that last sentence casual, but it's hard not to notice the blush spreading on her cheeks. Still, she genuinely is glad the two of them are from the same world, having someone from home by your side to help you out.]

[tempredmental]

Yeah. We are. [He nodded, oblivious. Kotori's secret crush was safe.] We're on a team together. [Yes, Keith was technically team leader, and had accepted it, but he still didn't exactly broadcast that fact.]

So, uh... how do we figure out what these do without, you know... blowing up your shop?

[ricebird]

[A soft laugh.]

Well, we could take these to the forest if you're really worried, but I trust you. Have you eaten any of them before?

[They certainly SMELL edible. REALLY edible. Like dang, the basket has really nice taste.]

[tempredmental]

Ah, no... I wasn't sure what to do with them, to be honest. [He wasn't used to magically appearing food. He'd seen a lot of weird things in his life, but this was definitely new.

He picked up one of the sweet rolls.]

I honestly don't even know what some of these are.

[A baker, he was not.]

[ricebird]

Well, there is one way we can find out~

[Come on, Keith, there's three baskets' worth of bread here, it'd be a CRIME to let it go to waste!]

[tempredmental]

Yeah... There is.

[That was a lot of bread... Keith wasn't used to eating that much in the way of carbs.]

I guess we could try cutting into a few.

[ricebird]

Yay~!

[She actually lets out an excited little laugh as she runs to get a butter knife, butter dish, and a few jars of jam. (Making Linzer cookies with Varian earlier this week really paid off~)]

Here we go. Ooh! Maybe some honey too, let me grab that!

[Three guesses what Kotori's passion in life is, Keith, first two don't count.]

[tempredmental]

[Keith stared at the selection, wondering if he'd just met Hunk again in a different body. No... he got excited about food, but she was way perkier. Same level of passion, though, probably. He watched her return with the honey.]

Okay.

We're not gonna eat all of it, though, right?

[He was honestly willing to let her keep the leftovers, though, if she wanted them.]

[ricebird]

Well, we don't have to... [Implying yes, Kotori WOULD consider that a valid option!] We can save some for later, or put it to other uses! Ooh! Like bread porridge, or bread pudding, maybe we can even try making some homemade panko from the less sweet rolls!

[tempredmental]

[That was a lot of carbs, Kotori, and Keith didn't have anything to be carbo-loading for...]

That, uh... that sounds fine.

You know... saving some for later.

[Also, if some of these actually did have weapon-like capabilities, he didn't exactly want to get hurt before figuring out if any of them were also healing in nature.]

[ricebird]

[Meanwhile, Kotori is equipped with a Teenage Metabolism+, especially since once of her powers is to increase her appetite and metabolism whenever her pot overflows. That might be unwittingly kicking in here.]

Sweet! Let me get some baskets for these, and the condiments, and we can take these out to the woods to experiment if you want!

[tempredmental]

Uh, sure. [That seemed the safest, at least. That way, they wouldn't damage her shop. When she came back, Keith helped her pack up what was loose on the table so they could carry them out. He hooked his own basket to his belt before they headed out.]

So, what kinds of things can people do with stuff like this?

[Maybe, if he had some ideas, he could try to figure them out before something exploded in their faces.]

[ricebird]

Let's see... My food can heal people a little bit... Hunk-san's honey comes in explosive, sticky, or sleep bomb... I think Naomi-san can make potions, but I'm not sure what hers can do.

[tempredmental]

Hm.

[A wide range of things, then... which really didn't help much, but okay. Time to try this out.

They reached a relatively isolated area in the woods away from town. It was clear, so not a lot of things to damage or get hurt if it got thrown around.]

So... [He picked up a sweet roll, and held it for a moment, staring at it like he was trying to figure out what it might do just by looking at it.] I mean, I should be able to sense if there's something to it, right?

[ricebird]

Maybe. Hunk-san is able to, I think. [Her smile quirks a bit sheepishly.] As for me, I didn't really notice until I ate something from the pot after burning my tongue.

[tempredmental]

[That got a small chuckle and he nodded.]

Okay, well... let's give it a try.

[Keith frowned in concentration as he started to look through the three basket-loads of baked goods. He picked up a foot long roll of french bread, studying it for a second. He looked bewildered as he stood up with it, but wandered over to a small sapling and took a test swing.

Welp... Somehow... a loaf of bread cut through a small tree...

Keith looked shocked.]

Woah.

[ricebird]

EEK!

[Kotori jumps back a step as she yelps! Welp, that sure happened!]

A-ah...! Wow! How... That was... Wow!

[She's not sure how much she's amazed and how much she's terrified because SUDDENLY BREAD CAN CUT HER TOO!]

[tempredmental]

[Keith actually grinned a little, swinging it around like he knew what he was doing with it... because, well, he did.]

That was pretty awesome. [Now he was into this.] What else do I have in here? [He found a small sticky bun. A simple thing, really, and he experimentally gave it a good toss into the field. It burst into sticky goo.]

Okay, that's both cool and gross...

[ricebird]

[At least they were out of the blast radius on that one... hopefully.]

Haha, sticky bun... Clever, and that'll be useful too.

[Still, her laugh might sound a little faint, given she's still recovering from the bread blade. (Blead? Brade?)]

[tempredmental]

[This time, he picked up on her hesitance.]

You okay, Kotori?

[He picked up another one of the sticky buns, and started to pull it apart to see if it was edible. Seemed like it. He took an experimental bite.]

Hey, that's pretty good...

[ricebird]

A-ah, yeah, I'm fine, I just... didn't expect the bread to [gulp] cut things...

[Yeah, no, she's a terrible liar. But ooh, distraction-- I mean food!]

Oh, is it? Could I have a bite, please?